Abjuration is one of the basic schools of magic. It involves spells that mainly work to protect the user, and their companions or to otherwise neutralize the presence of extraplanar beings. In the sections below, we will cover some of the best abjuration spells available, which classes have access to them, and how they work.
Table of Contents
Cantrip
Cantrips are available to full casters starting at level 1. For half-casters and quarter-casters, cantrips are usually not available without taking the Fighting Style Blessed Warrior or a feat.
Blade Ward
Blade ward is an abjuration spell that you want to have on you but never want to actually use. Resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage is invaluable when you’re a squishy spellcaster, but hopefully, you can manage to avoid melee combat altogether and never need to resort to wasting a whole action doing this. If you’re a Sorcerer, you can Quicken Spell blade ward, though.
Available to Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards.
Level 1
Level 1 spells are available to full casters beginning at level 1. For half-casters and quarter-casters, they become available between levels 2-3
Armor of Agathys
Not only do you gain temporary hit points that scale nicely with your spell slot level, but if you happen to end up in melee and someone takes a swipe at you, they automatically take cold damage equal to the number of temporary hit points you’ve been enjoying from this awesome abjuration spell.
Available to Warlocks and Oath of Conquest Paladins
Shield
This is an amazing abjuration spell. You get to use your reaction to add a flat bonus of +5 to your AC after you hear the enemy’s attack roll. That means you never have to worry about wasting this spell. Plus, it lasts until the start of your next turn, so if there are multiple opponents coming at you, this will likely prevent at least a few attacks.
Available to Sorcerers, Wizards, Hexblade Warlocks, Artillerist Artificers, and Battle Smith Artificers
Level 2
Level 2 spells are available to full casters starting at level 3. For half-casters, they start at level 5. For quarter-casters, they become available at level 7.
Aid
There are a few important things to note about this abjuration spell. It increases your targets’ maximum hit points, so temporary hit points still stack with this spell. You can even use it to heal someone at 0 hit points and bring them back to consciousness. You get three targets, and they continue to benefit for eight hours.
Available to Clerics, Paladins, and Artificers
Pass without Trace
This is a simple abjuration spell, but it’s convenient for parties with multiple people in heavy or medium armor or poor Dexterity (Stealth) bonuses. It adds +10 to your Dexterity (Stealth) checks, but it isn’t Invisibility, so you still need to find something to hide behind.
Available to Druids, Rangers, and Trickery Domain Clerics
Level 3
Level 3 spells are available to full casters starting at level 5. For half-casters, they start at level 9. For quarter-casters, they become available at level 13.
Counterspell
Stopping enemy spellcasters in their tracks is a great way to use your reaction with this abjuration spell. Note that you need to be able to see that someone is casting a spell, though, so you can’t meta your way into stopping a Sorcerer using the Subtle Spell Metamagic or someone who is standing behind you.
Available to Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards, Oath of Redemption Paladins, and Oath of the Watcher Paladins
Dispel Magic
There are plenty of times when you’ll want to Dispel Magic, and not all of them are outside of combat. If an enemy relies heavily on a magic item, you can dispel that particular item and neutralize it. It’s a completely underrated abjuration spell.
Available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards, and Artificers
Level 4
Level 4 spells are available to full casters starting at level 7. For half-casters, they start at level 13. For quarter-casters, they become available at level 19. This is the highest level for quarter-casters.
Banishment
Banishment is an abjuration spell that requires a Charisma saving throw, something that almost all monsters are notoriously bad at (except for dragons). This works best against single enemies that originate from another plane of existence because if you can successfully maintain your Concentration for the whole minute, the creature will not return. Even if you remove them temporarily, it gives your party a round or two to prepare their attacks or heal.
Available to Clerics, Paladins, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards
Death Ward
Lasting for eight hours and not requiring Concentration means that Death Ward is a phenomenal defense mechanism as an abjuration spell. You can cast it on someone squishy who frequently goes down during combat or your party’s tank. Monks and melee rogues are often good targets since they have few hit points and engage directly with enemies.
Available to Clerics, Paladins, Undying Warlocks, Undead Warlocks, and Alchemist Artificers
Level 5
Level 5 spells are available to full casters starting at level 9. For half-casters, they start at level 17. This is the highest level for half-casters.
Banishing Smite
The damage is pretty serious for a 5th-level abjuration spell (5d10), but what’s really appealing about this spell is the banishing aspect. You do have to do some guesswork at the opponent’s hp, but if you can reduce them beneath 50 hit points, you can banish them back to their home plane or a harmless demiplane (if they are local). You can keep them there until the spell ends, which is a maximum of 1 minute.
Available to Paladins, Hexblade Warlocks, and Battle Smith Artificers
Circle of Power
Walking around with your very own protection circle is a pretty cool deal. Everyone in that 30-foot-radius circle has advantage on saving throws made against spells and magical effects. Even better, if someone in the circle succeeds on their saving throw, they don’t take any damage (instead of the normal half damage for success) with this abjuration spell.
Available to Paladins and Twilight Domain Clerics
Level 6
Level 6 spells are available to full casters starting at level 11.
Druid Grove
This abjuration spell only takes 10 minutes to cast, and it lasts for a full 24 hours to keep your party safe and protected. You can customize the size of the protected area and get a variety of effects. You can fill parts with fog, obscuring whatever is inside. Places without fog have magical weeds and vines to capture intruders. You get four animated trees to come and stand as guardians.
Available to Druids
Fizban’s Platinum Shield
You get to make a shield around someone (maybe you) that provides a ton of great benefits with this abjuration spell. You have half cover (which means +2 to your AC and Dexterity saving throws), resistance to five different types of elemental damage, and if you succeed on a Dexterity saving throw, you take no damage (instead of the normal half damage on a success). Plus, if you want, you can use your bonus action to swap the shield to someone else.
Available to Sorcerers and Wizards
Level 7
Level 7 spells are available to full casters starting at level 13.
Symbol
Symbol is the only abjuration spell at this level and works best for people laying traps. Essentially, you take a minute to inscribe a harmful sigil that has a specific trigger. For example, you could use it to protect a chest with something valuable inside. The trigger would be attempting to open the chest without the password you designate. If you have time before a fight, you can use symbol on a door to blast your opponent with a harmful effect before they come busting in.
Available to Bards, Clerics, and Wizards
Level 8
Level 8 spells are available to full casters starting at level 15.
Antimagic Field
For up to 1 hour, the area around you completely negates all magic with this abjuration spell. No one inside can cast spells, anything that was summoned magically disappears, and magic items all become mundane. People outside of the circle can’t target anyone inside with a spell, and spells with an area of effect simply wash over people inside the circle with no effects.
Available to Clerics and Wizards
Mind Blank
Mind blank is a strange abjuration spell because it sounds like it should work like feeblemind, but it actually does the opposite. The targeted creature is immune to psychic damage, can’t be tracked through divination magic, is immune to the charmed condition, and nothing that tries to read its thoughts can do so. Your mind is a total fortress. The text notes that even the wish spell can’t be used to gather information about a creature with this spell.
Available to Bards and Wizards
Level 9
Level 9 spells are available to full casters starting at level 17.
Invulnerability
Invulnerability is just as cool as the name would lead you to believe. This abjuration spell genuinely makes you immune to all damage for the 10 minutes you concentrate on it. Unfortunately, you can’t cast it on other people, and it uses up your one 9th-level spell slot for the day, but maybe it’s worth it if you have a very important task in your party that you have to complete no matter what the Big Bad does.
Available to Wizards
Prismatic Wall
This abjuration spell is technically not about the protection it offers. It’s a wall with seven different layers of damaging effects that someone will have to traverse to get to you on the other side. Anyone who even gets close to it risks being blinded. Antimagic field doesn’t affect prismatic wall, and dispel magic can only work on the violet layer. The layers deal fire, acid, lightning, poison, and cold damage in addition to risking petrification and banishment to another plane of existence.
Available to Wizards
